Baseball

Northwestern may have finally broken the slump that has dragged the team into the basement of the Big Ten standings with Sunday’s 11-3 rout of Nebraska.

Wednesday’s game against Bradley — the first of four home contests at Miller Park this week — offers an opportunity for the Wildcats (8-24, 2-7) to test the validity of their recent improvement.

“We’ve got to stop the rollercoaster. We’ve got to get on a roll,” coach Spencer Allen said. “I’m very excited to see how we come out tomorrow and how that can carry over into the Penn State series.”

The heart of the batting order for NU — junior outfielder Matt Hopfner, whose .395 batting average ranks fifth in the conference;  junior outfielder Joe Hoscheit; and sophomore third baseman Connor Lind — went 22-for-40 combined at the plate against the Cornhuskers. Their common effectiveness prevented pitchers from pitching around anybody in the middle of the lineup.

Allen said continuing their simultaneous hot streaks will prove crucial to the entire team’s batting potency.

“When those three are going, there’s no way to run if you’re a pitcher — you’ve got to make pitches to one of them,” he said. “One of the keys to success is that we need three to four of those guys rolling at once, which we had at Nebraska. Each one of them makes each other better.”

Senior pitcher Jake Stolley (1-1, 3.96 ERA) will start on the mound Wednesday but will throw only 40 to 50 pitches before giving way to a parade of relievers, Allen said.

The Cats have followed that strategy in four other recent contests and Stolley has allowed just 3 total runs in those games, including 0 in the last three starts.

“We don’t necessarily have a set starter for those games, so it’s just to get our bullpen some work,” Stolley said. “You don’t want to extend anyone too far who hasn’t thrown a lot this year. I just go out there and get the game started for a couple innings, hand it off to the next guy, hope he can get a couple, just work from there.”

Bradley (15-10, 1-1 Missouri Valley) enters Wednesday having won five of its last six and boasting five regular starters with batting averages above .315. The Braves have also allowed just 3.86 earned runs per game this season, although probable starter Ben Olson sports a less-impressive 5.33 ERA.

Allen said he knew little about the in-state opponent, which NU has faced just once since 1975, and instead emphasized the need for his team to simply focus on its own play.

That mantra is one Hoscheit has taken to heart since returning from injury March 30. After going just 1-for-9 with 1 RBI in his first four games back, he exploded for a 7-for-16, 7 RBIs stat line during last week’s four games.

“The last couple weekends, I was just trying to get back into the swing of things,” Hoscheit said. “This past weekend … gave me confidence moving forward at the plate and that’s the most important thing for me right now.”

Facing Bradley, he said he hopes the entire team will able to build upon the collective confidence they gained from Sunday’s performance.

“We have been so inconsistent — either pitching is good one day or hitting or fielding — and I think we finally put that all together this weekend,” Hoscheit said. “If we continue to do that over the next few weeks, I hope we’ll have some success.”

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Twitter: @benpope111